Участник:2023 Season to Perfectly Restore the Color of Soccer
Daegu, which faced a crisis last season after being pushed to the brink of relegation, managed to stay and recorded a disappointing eighth-place performance in the league. A year later, Daegu faced a happy winter, finishing the season at the top, not at the bottom.
Full recovery of soccer color, Daegu heading to Final A for the first time in 2 years
Last year, under the leadership of Gama in Brazil, Daegu faced significant changes. The team sought to change its color from defensive and specialized in counterattack attack that symbolized Daegu to that of aggressive forward pressure and leading soccer. There were also many positive aspects to Daegu, but Daegu failed to make changes and fell to the relegation zone. In August last year, Daegu chose to part ways with Gama and appointed Choi Won-kwon, a senior coach who had been a player and coach in its team, as its acting manager, to overcome the crisis situation in a surprise move.
Acting Choi barely managed to stay in the league by winning four consecutive games in the second half of the year and was appointed as an official manager from the acting team. Daegu, which was pushed to the relegation zone, was expected to weaken its power as Jeong Tae-wook, the team's main defender, moved to Jeonbuk Hyundai through the winter transfer market, but hired Kim Kang-san, a substitute, from Bucheon to prevent the leakage of power. In addition, he re-introduced Edgar to reinforce the position where Jecca left for Pohang, and succeeded in reinforcing his power by confirming early recruitment of Brazilian specialist Vaselus and Serato.
There was a departure of the main players, but Daegu remained unchanged. It was shaken by the reversal of the match against Pohang in the opening game of the season, but succeeded in resolving the atmosphere by posting a draw in the two consecutive games against Jeju and Daegu, and garnered its first win of the season by catching Jeonbuk, the favorite to win the title, in the fourth round. Since then, it has been shaken by losing two consecutive games to Seoul and Gwangju, but it has garnered relatively good performance with three wins, four draws and four losses until 11 league games by catching Daejeon and Suwon Samsung in succession.
Under the new head coach Choi Won-kwon, Daegu gradually found stability and succeeded in making a leap to the top by running five undefeated league games (three wins and two draws) from round 12 to round 16, finishing seventh with eight wins, nine draws and seven losses until round 24, the end of the first half. In the summer transfer market, which was held shortly after the end of the first half, Daegu ended its contract with Serato, which had been disappointing, early, and recruited Beltola, a former member of the Brazilian national team, to strengthen its power.
In the second half of the year, Daegu was shaken for a while, but soon showed off its potential and achieved the great achievement of advancing to the Final A early. Although the team continued its winless streak in the three league games that led to Ulsan (no), Incheon (loss) and Seoul (no), it successfully defeated Jeju, Gangwon, Suwon, Samsung and Jeonbuk in five league games to elevate the ranking table, which had fallen to ninth place, to fourth place, and recovered its pride that had collapsed last year by successfully advancing to the Final A ahead of the final game. Daegu, which had a fierce battle in the final round for the Asian stage since then, finished the season in sixth place in the league with one win, one draw and three losses in five final rounds.
Under the leadership of Choi Won-kwon, Daegu sent a perfect signal to revive the Daegu soccer team. Based on solid defense, the team perfectly blocked the opponent's attack and staged counterattacks, which were highly effective. Among the K-League 1 and 12 teams, the team displayed so simple operation that the number of offensive passes, defensive passes, short-distance passes, forward passes, lateral passes, mid-distance passes, and central area passes all ranked at the bottom. However, it displayed robust capability to advance to the Final A by banking on counterattacks and simple attack patterns to offset this.
Thorough promises and concise attack patterns were the foundation of Daegu soccer, but the players also performed very well. Ko Jae-hyun, a key striker, played in 37 league games with nine goals and one assist, while Edgar also played in 34 league games with nine goals and three assists, contributing to Daegu's "click football." Cesinha, a non-replaceable ace, also played only 23 league games due to continued injury, but scored eight goals and five assists, showing off his class as he remained. In addition, veteran Lee Keun-ho, who played his retirement season, also contributed by scoring two goals and one assist in 32 league games.
In addition, Hong Cheol, who showed off his class in defense, appeared in 29 league games and scored one goal and six assists, and Hwang Jae-won, who was nominated for the Young Player Award and also showed a strong performance for the national team, contributed to Daegu's attack by scoring one goal and three assists in 33 league games. In addition, Jang Sung-won and Keita, who were initially classified as candidates, contributed by scoring one goal and four assists in 29 games and two goals in 26 games, respectively.
Jung Tae-wook, who played as a key defender, left for Jeonbuk, but Hong Jung-woon, who played in 33 league games led by captain Kim Jin-hyuk, who played in all of this season's matches, and Kim Kang-san, who played in the right places in the central defender position, showed good performance by players at all positions in Daegu.
Although Daegu failed to secure a berth to the Asian Champions League, which it had longed for throughout the season, it succeeded in raising its performance, which had been in the relegation zone last year, and returned to the Final A for the first time in two years. In addition, it was also impressive that Choi Won-kwon, the rookie coach, recorded remarkable performance in his first year as a coach, recovering the team's color. Where will Daegu settle in the 2023 season and the upcoming 2024 season, which signaled a reversal.